Udon Entertainment Announces New Macross Art Books

Udon Entertainment has finally been able to reach out to readers outside of North American with a distribution deal with Comixology. They signed it back in early 2013 and the Canadian manga company has garnered tremendous success with their Street Fighter, Makeshift Miracle and Dark Stalkers comics. At the San Diego Comic con Harmony Gold and Udon have both announced a new licensing deal for a series of Art Books.

Robotech is one of the most successful mecha franchises of all time. The 85 episode series first launched in 1985 and seamlessly crossed over into North America from Japan. The premise of the series involves a fallen battlecruiser landing on earth and sparks major scientific advances. With this technology, Earth developed robotic technologies, such as transformable mecha, to fight three successive extraterrestrial invasions against the likes of the Zentradi and Invid.

The franchise has been going strong with different movies, OVA, manga, comics and television series. The more notable ones are Macross Frontier, Macross 7, Macross Plus, Macross Zero, The Shadow Chronicles. Overarching themes normally involve love, music and mecha based combat.

The new licensing deal will see a number of new art books developed. They will have concept art, model sheets, early developmental designs and sketches covering Robotech and the original Japanese Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada series. Udon will also be the publisher for the Kickstarter-exclusive Art of Robotech Academy book. Although an exact page count is not finalized, the target is for 96 pages and will feature the character and mecha designs for Robotech Academy.

Udon does have past experience working on the Robotech franchise which likely helped them secure the exclusive contract for the art books. They helped produce the five issue comic series Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles. Most people in art book circles hold Udon in very high regard, so likely they will do very good work with the IP.

Right now details are sparse on whether or not these will be books exclusively in print and sold via Amazon or will include digital editions sold on Comixology. Most of their prior art books were in paperback format exclusively, so it is unlikely that they will digitize it. Harmony Gold and Udon both would not comment for this story, but did say more news would surface towards the end of the year.

Tommy Yune, Creative Director, Harmony Gold told Good e-Reader ” We’ve uncovered in our archives the original production model sheets for the Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospaeda, television series’. We have a ton of model sheets, and even early developmental designs that have never been seen or published anywhere. We’re going to be working with UDON to collect this all, to have one of the most unique artwork collections ever made from Robotech. I’m extremely grateful for the energy that UDON has put into Robotech.”

Meanwhile Erik Ko, Chief of Operations, UDON Entertainment told us ” I grew up watching Robotech, it was a big part of my childhood. We’re thrilled to be involved in this project. In fact, since the founding of UDON we’ve been involved with Robotech through various comics and design projects. We’re honoured and very thankful to have been chosen to work on this new art book project.”

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.

“The 85 episode series first launched in 1985 and seamlessly crossed over into North America from Japan.”

Er, no. It did no such thing. It was actually 3 separate series (Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA) with absolutely no connection to each other being mashed together, with massively changed storylines (especially Southern Cross).

well lets look at it. the super dimensional macross saga first started in a war against the Zentradi. Rick Hunter, Lisa, Max Stirling etc. After defeating the Z they took the expedtionary force to hunt for the robotech masters. Shortly afterwards, they invid invasion occurs, settings up the events of Southern Cross. I did not mention it in the article, but of course there is the 2nd generation, macross 7, the limited series Macros Plus (which was actually fairly good) and various other OVA. I was a big fan of everything robotech/macross.

Quinton Kyle Hoover

Saying that the three shows had nothing to do with each other is like saying that Henry Gloval has nothing to do with Captain Nemo.

The first two series were produced by the same people under the “Super Dimension” label, and the first and last series had virtually identical mecha designs. They did change minor story elements when it was brought to America in the later two shows, but those did not change the character for the most parts and even the creators of the later two shows admitted that the Robotech version was a great improvement. Like Power Rangers, it’s not a bad thing to change things and it’s not bad to like a different version. Peace.

On that note, the author does seem to be confused on many, many things; although the new Robotech book will include Macross art indeed.

Richard Clark

No, the Macross and Robotech timelines are completely separate. Robotech Masters (Southern Cross), New Generation (Mospeada), and Shadow Chronicles are part of Robotech but not Macross. Macross II, Plus, 7, Zero, and Frontier are not part of Robotech. Completely different.

Jorge Velazquez Vidal

Who ever wrote this, is a moron for not fact checking his/her own article…

dude I’m so confused. It looks like you trying to make Robotech happen. Stop making it happen.

dsa

‘The 85 episode series first launched in 1985 and seamlessly crossed over into North America from Japan.’
This sentence implies that Robotech already exist in Japan which is wrong. Robotech is just a mashed up of three unrelated anime (Macross, Southern Cross, Mospeada) and was created in the US.

‘The franchise has been going strong with different movies, OVA, manga, comics and television series. The more notable ones are Macross Frontier, Macross 7, Macross Plus, Macross Zero, The Shadow Chronicles. Overarching themes normally involve love, music and mecha based combat.’
Once again the author who wrote this doesn’t know about the differences between the Robotech franchise and the Macross franchise. Most of those he refers to are from the Macross franchise, except for Shadow Chronicle.

Anubis_Necromancer

Welll… Don’t using Macross Frontier in the Academy.

David Farris

“After defeating the Z they took the expedtionary force to hunt for the
robotech masters. Shortly afterwards, they invid invasion occurs,
settings up the events of Southern Cross.”

Uh, no. The Masters War (aka Super Dimension: Cavalry Southern Cross) takes place after the 1st Robotech War. The end of that series sets up The Invid Invasion/Occupation during The New Generation (aka Genesis Climber MOSPEADA).

Southern Cross and the Hunt for the Robotech Masters occurs in the same time line.

David Farris

Except that is not what you stated. You stated that the Invid Invasion happens first, which it clearly does not.

John Kelley

The invid invaded Tirol, that set up the events in Southren Cross… know your history you moron.

John Kelley

“Shortly afterwards, they invid invasion occurs,”- he isn’t referring to “the” invid invasion that occurred after the destruction of the Masters ships over the 3 mounds, but “they” invid invasion, when “they” invaded Tirol. – know your history moron.

John Kelley

Awesome Article…. it is pretty hard to keep track of the difference between the Later Macross series, and Robotech.
Macross frontier is not much more than a re-telling of the Mospeda/Invid invasion era of Robotech, set in deep space.
Both have cross-dressers, Alien princesses, Killer-cyborg guys, goofy aliens with magical energy sources, annoying and lethal little girls, Power-armor survival suits….
Watching Macross-F I kept wondering when Scott was gonna finally Kiss Ariel, only to realize that is was Alto and Ranka in the show….

dsa

Kelly, that line does refer to the Invid taking Earth and not Tyrol. It’s established in the Sentinel that even before the REF left Earth, the Invid has already attacked and taken over Tyrol, so it does not make sense to say that the Invid attacked Tyrol after the REF left in 2022. The only occurance of an Invid invasion is the one on Earth.